Book lovers take note: two big literary launches are underway this week. First up: Tonight, in the underground retail space below Nina’s Coffee Café of St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood, the brand-new Subtext bookstore will hold its first-ever in-store reading. The event features an impressive line-up of local writerly talent: Minnesota Book Award-winner Ed Bok […]
Article · June 13, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Late last week, the League of American Orchestras named the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) as one of 24 U.S. orchestras to receive a 2011-2012 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The musician-led, internationally-known chamber orchestra (also a Knight Arts grantee) is being recognized, specifically, in the category of Programming of Contemporary Music. It’s such a […]
Article · June 11, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
One of my all-time favorite summertime traditions is starting up again: Open Eye Figure Theatre has just begun its beloved Driveway Tour, for which the company of puppeteers, led by Michael Sommers and Susan Haas, takes its show on the road. With a charming, cleverly designed mobile puppet theater in tow, the traveling players deploy […]
Article · June 6, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
For theater in the park, you just couldn’t have found a more conducive setting than Saturday’s postcard-perfect late spring afternoon in St. Paul’s idyllic Swede Hollow Park — and this wasn’t just any performance either. An enthusiastic crowd gathered to hear award-winning composer Ann Millikan’s new one-act chamber opera, named for this very spot. The […]
Article · June 4, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Last Wednesday over the lunch hour, I attended a small but lively unveiling ceremony for a public art project, a bit of “placemaking” on University Avenue in St. Paul. Glass artist Steve Bougie, with the assistance of apprentice Richard Fuller, adorned an otherwise unremarkable stretch of chain-link fence around a parking lot with a “chained-glass […]
Article · May 30, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
No more than 15 people came out to Nautilus Music-Theater’s cozy studio space for Sunday night’s performance of “The View from Here,” a play by New York City-based playwright Timothy Huang. And that’s a crying shame. Like last year’s magnificent “Joan of Arc,” this intimately staged show points to the breadth of creative possibilities in […]
Article · May 23, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
It rained hard for an hour or so early Saturday evening, so there weren’t many cars or pedestrians on the road when artist Matt McAuliffe donned a blindfold and took his car out for a spin. “Blindfolded Drive” was captured on video and streamed online in real time; he was joined by a few volunteer […]
Article · May 21, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Ask anyone who lives in a neighborhood riddled with foreclosed homes and derelict storefronts, and they’ll tell you: an empty building is much more than just an empty building in hard economic times. These neglected spaces become a locus for petty vandalism and crime, the abandoned commercial and residential properties’ growing disrepair an unmistakable hallmark […]
Article · May 16, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
It’s a big week at new music hotspot, Studio Z: Zeitgeist and internationally acclaimed Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung will present the world premiere of his new chamber work, “Spiral XIV – Nimitta.” Ung was recognized in 1989 with a prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his choral piece, “Inner Voices,” and has since made a name for […]
Article · May 14, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
In 2006 when I first interviewed the enterprising young couple behind Craftstravaganza, the Twin Cities’ indie crafter scene was just beginning to hit the mainstream and give the old guard in the business of artisanal wares a run for their money on the craft show circuit. In the intervening years, Andy and Jenna Krueger have […]
Article · May 9, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
“Who knows what people see when they’re in a coma, or when they die?” That’s a question Myron Johnson, director of Ballet of the Dolls, has been mulling for nearly a year. His answer: the one-night-only, world premiere performance of “Faith: A Dance for Life,” a new work commissioned by Ordway Center of Performing Arts, […]
Article · May 7, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler